Tell Me a Story
by Serenity Draco
Summary: Kagome found true love in the past only to be forced to return to the future where she meets a mysterious boy. Lost and alone she finds comfort in this boy as he tells her a story, her story about her life, her love, and her past. Kag/Youko later Shu/Kag
1. Forget Me Not is a Rose

_Tell Me a Story_

by

Serenity Draco

_A Yu Yu Hakusho InuYasha Crossover_

It was a beautiful day outside. The sky was the perfect shade of blue and the clouds were white and puffy making fun shapes that many were outside enjoying. Many except the girl sitting beneath the cherry tree blooming in the sunny park. Her dark hair fell in long waves over her shoulders as she sat holding her light jacket over her legs keeping them warm from the cool spring breeze that fell over her every so often. Her short gray skirt did little to warm her unlike her long sleeved black shirt that covered her arms right down to her knuckles as she sat with her hands in her lap staring without sight in to the branches of the blossoming tree.

"It is too beautiful a day to be so sad, miss," a smooth voice called to her, pulling her from her thoughts.

She didn't jump at the sudden sound of his voice. There was no real reason to jump in this era. She had left all the real danger behind her and now life was just dull. Slowly she lowered her gaze to the man who was attempting to warm her with words. She hated people anymore which was why she had become a recluse since she returned here permanently. Everyone here was fake. Just like she figured this boy was being as well. He probably only saw her as easy, what with her emo appearance and rounding figure that was thankfully still hidden by her clothing. She frowned and only glared at him hoping to scare him off like she had done to all the other people, including those she had once called friends, but he only smiled and sat down beside her leaning against her tree.

"You know you look a lot like a woman from a story I had once heard," he said adjusting his long red hair so that he wasn't leaning on it as he made himself comfortable. "A story about a powerful priestess and some jewel, though I forget what it was called."

"The Shikon no Tama," she replied coldly with a disbelieving tone.

"Oh so you're familiar with the tale?" he asked lightly with a smirk.

She shrugged, "My family runs a shrine."

"I see, so you know the tale already?"

"Never said I paid attention," she responded blankly as she leaned her head back to look up at the falling petals above her.

"Really?" he questioned in surprise. "Then you've never been told the old tale of the priestess and the thief?"

She froze for a moment before she turned to look at him with wide disbelieving eyes. It took it her a moment to relax as she slowly realized that they boy was probably speaking of an old shrine tale after all, it was probably bound to happen, but she was sure that the tale was probably misconstrued and she probably died in the end, because that's really all that could be said of her sudden disappearance.

"Can't really say that any one has," she responded looking back up again.

"Then do you mind if I tell you?" he asked hopefully, resting his arm on his khaki clad bended knee comfortably. "I think it may just cheer you up."

"Knock yourself out," she sighed dully.

"Well they say, about 500 years ago there lived a strange priestess in a small village. She was very beautiful and from the descriptions you could probably pass for her twin," he began to which she snorted with a roll of her eyes, but he continued. "She was a tamer of beasts, they said, because she traveled with a halfbreed man she could subdue with merely a word and an orphaned fox kit in her care. She was the type to make friends with everyone and anything and it was because of this a certain infamous thief sought to use her to capture a certain jewel she was to protecting.

"It was said that this jewel housed an incredible and terrible power that could grant the person wishing upon it equally great and terrible things. It was also said to be most beautiful when it was at the most corrupted but the woman carrying the jewel was the purest that the earth had ever seen and so the thief sought not to corrupt the jewel itself but the one who protected it. He began by approaching the girl slowly and only when she was alone. The tale even describes their first meeting as going a little like this;

_~*~_

"_I know you're there demon," she called out to him from the hot spring where she was bathing. "You may as well show yourself."_

_He stepped from the shadows of the trees surprise showing clearly on his face along with puzzlement. She was alone and vulnerable, yet here she was calling him out on the spot as she stood in the water as naked as the day she was born save for the glittering pink jewel around her neck. The hot spring glowed with it's own eerie light and coupled with the moonless night it gave her an almost ethereal form. It was as though she were an ebony haired goddess standing in that pool of water instead of the gifted mortal he knew her to be. She turned to face him, her long tresses covering her breasts, preserving at least some of her modesty while the water that reached her waist shielded his eyes from her treasures below._

"_I know what you seek, demon," she said knowingly as she rested her hands on the surface of the water._

"_Do you now?" he responded, leaning casually against a tree and folding his arms over his chest with a raise of his elegant silver brow. "I am just a low level apparition drawn here by your enticing scent. What is it I would seek from a pathetic mortal such as you?"_

_She laughed a tinkling sort of laugh that reminded him of the sound of gold which he found he liked, "You were enticed by my scent?" she scoffed, placing a hand on her hip, looking at him incredulously. "Look, I'm not stupid, thank you very much, so if you don't mind I would appreciate it if you wouldn't insult my intelligence by lying to me, thief."_

"_Thief?" he questioned innocently with a smile._

"_First of all there are not many demons who can take on an almost completely human appearance and those that can are very powerful. Seeing as I'm friends with most of those powerful demons, that leaves only another handful to take an appearance like you," she began simply. "Now out of those handfuls the only one I know to look like you, fox ears and all, is the thief Youko Kurama."_

"_So you are intelligent after all," he replied with a sinister smile. "Then you also must know that I have you surrounded and escape from me will be a futile endeavor."_

"_Hardly," she shot back with another laugh. "I am the Shikon no Miko for a reason and while I would rather not hurt you I'm not as defenseless as finding me naked in the middle of the night would lead you to believe."_

"_Hm, that may be true but I can think of a few different ways that finding you wet, naked, and out in the middle of the night would find you very defenseless."_

_She sputtered looking at him with a blushing face. Even the perverted monk she traveled with was not nearly as bold as the fellow in front of her with his crude remark. She almost wondered if he was attempting to seduce her, but she kept her thoughts to herself only moving to cover herself as she submersed herself back into the cloudy water._

"_Hentai!" she muttered, knowing full well that he could hear her._

_He only smiled and stepped to the edge of the spring so that he was now looking down on her, "I cannot help it if that is what _your_ perverted mind thought of when I said that."_

"_What do you want Kurama?" she demanded hotly a pretty blush still on her face as she glared up at him._

"_I merely wanted to see if the Shikon no Miko was as beautiful as the rumors say," he replied simply with a shrug._

"_Oh?" she snorted in a very unlady like fashion. "And how exactly do I measure up?"_

_He didn't say a word but instead pulled from his hair a single perfectly formed rose. She gasped and reached up to catch the beautiful red flower and when she did she was surprised to find that all the thorns were missing from the stem. She was as equally surprised when she looked to the bank where he had once been sitting to find that he was gone. Worriedly she turned searching for him, but he was no where to be found._

_~*~_

"So it is said that their first meeting was the first as well as the basis of their next several meetings," the boy finished with a small smile. "He continued meeting her just as he did the first time, and each time he would disappear, leaving only a perfect red rose each time."

"Did it ever say what she did with all the roses?" she asked quietly.

He thought for a moment before he replied, "No I don't guess it ever did, but I'll assume that given the time period she probably didn't know much in the way of preserving them."

She didn't say anything, but just stood and ran away from him. He stood quickly and watched her disappear into the crowd catching the smell of her tears with his acute senses and though no one noticed his eyes glowed gold for a moment before returning to their normal emerald green color as he turned and walked away.

_Authors Notes:_

_Okay, so this is just a little story that I wrote in like two days after listening to A Fine Frenzy and their song Almost Lover on repeat for like hours. Yeah, my muse is a fickle thing that's inspired by random music and the occasional music video. Go figure. I wasn't really well please with it honestly, but thought that perhaps someone else might enjoy it. I may even go back and add onto it more later but for now, these three chapters are all that I'm posting, if my muse allows me or enough people like the story._


	2. Basket of the Sun Child

It had been nearly a week since she had last seen the red headed boy let alone anything outside of her pink bedroom walls. Once again at the behest of her mother she was outside sweeping the temple grounds half wondering why her grandfather didn't invest in a larger broom made for sweeping large areas like this, but she was sure that it was something to do with tradition that stayed his hand. She sighed as she rested under her favorite tree by the front steps and studied the grounds as she rested her chin on her palm, slouching on her knees. So lost in thought she didn't even notice the red heads approach until he was next to her.

"So this is the shrine you spoke of?" he asked taking a comfortable seat beside her as though it were a normal occurrence.

"Can I help you?" she demanded suspiciously.

"Perhaps," he shrugged. "I'm actually doing a bit of research for a university project and was just checking out a few of the local shrines."

"Is that where you got your story from?" she asked with a shake of her head, knowing full well that there was no way he had a connection to her past.

"Not really," he smiled avoiding the question. "So I take it you liked the tale?"

"Not really," she just as carefully avoided him. "It's just one I've never really heard before."

He chuckled with amusement, "Perhaps we can trade stories today?"

"What do you mean?" she asked looking sideways at him still suspicious of his motives.

"Like I said I'm here for a project at university so you tell me a story about your shrine here and I'll tell you more of the priestess and the thief."

"Fine, but I've still got to finish sweeping the yard so if you can walk and talk, follow me," she said with a sigh.

She hated this. She hated life. It hadn't always been this way. Before _him_ she hadn't had any problem talking to people. She could smile. She could laugh. Now she found herself grasping at straws to show herself that what she'd had with him was real. It was really the only reason she found this boy bearable. He followed her to the far side of the yard by the storehouse, the last section of the day, before she had to get back up and do it again tomorrow. She placed a hand on her swelling belly, the only other reminder that what she had with him was real. The only reason she hadn't followed after him into deaths embrace.

"The shrine itself dates back to the Edo period of the Feudal Era, when Tokyo was just a village in the middle of a vast forest," she began her voice actually showing affection for the first time. "It was said that the forest and by proxy the village was protected by a halfbreed dog demon named Inuyasha, though the shrine was built long before he came along, though how far I'm not quite sure.

"Anyway, what I can also tell you is that it is said that both Inuyasha and his priestess lover, Kikyo, were both buried here after a tragic betrayal by a thief whom Kikyo had cared for secretly, healing him of his horrid burns after being caught on a botched burglary. We have a small shrine dedicated to them, as well as a few other honorable people, by the god tree where we were just sitting. The main shrine was built in honor to Inari the Shinto god of fertility, rice, agriculture, foxes, industry and worldly success since the village was known mostly for its rice trade that helped bring about its prosperous future as our nations capital."

"Inari?" he questioned politely. "Is that still the patron god of this shrine?"

"Yes and no," she responded straightening from her sweeping to look at him thoughtfully. "My family and I are Christian, however we also still believe in the gods of old like Inari."

"Isn't that blasphemous according to general Christian beliefs?" he asked slightly confused, putting his hands into the pockets of his dark jeans.

"We believe that at one point God created other gods and goddesses to keep watch over all his creations, so as long as we're not worshiping them, then we believe that it isn't blasphemous," she answered with a smile. "But really that's not something I'm supposed to be talking about."

"Sorry, continue," he returned her smile and a small bow of his head.

"Well, the reason why I know about the Shikon no Tama is because Kikyo one of the first priestesses of the shrine died protecting the jewel," she began again returning to her task. "It was said that when the jewel disappeared the power went into the Higurashi line as their way to protect the shrine."

"Hm, that's very interesting," he said thoughtfully as he looked off towards the setting sun.

"Your turn," she replied softly as he followed her without looking.

"Oh, well where did I leave off last?" he asked running a hand through his hair.

She paused and thought for a moment, "The priestess and thief had just met."

He smiled, "Right, well they continued meeting just as they had the first time for several months and though the thief had sought to corrupt the woman he found that he was beginning to enjoy her presence. One night when he was out hunting a band of low level demons attacked him. He of course was able to defeat them all but not before their underhanded guerrilla tactics had left him seriously injured. Unable to heal himself he ran to the priestess and the protection of her village until he was able to recover.

~*~

_The woman gasped when she saw her silver haired friend and rushed to his side before he collapsed forsaking the basket of herbs in her hand to the side of the road. Blood seemed to coat him from head to toe, though she was fairly sure that not all of it was his. Behind her she heard her surrogate son arrive and growl at the injured man in her arms._

"_Help me get him home, Shippo," she said worriedly, her arms wrapped around his torso and neck keeping him from face planting the dirt road._

"_Do you know who that man is?!" Shippo protested. "He's probably just faking it so he can steal the jewel!"_

"_I know exactly who he is and I also know that if I left everyone who pulled a ruse like this to get the jewel then you wouldn't be here, now are you going to help me or not?" she replied tartly. "Because either way he's hurt and I'm going to help him!"_

_Shippo grumbled but moved to do as she said. Together they hauled the now unconscious man to her small home. Since she had met the boy he had grown considerably coming into his lanky teenage body like most children without the slightest bit of grace and so when they placed the injured fox on her futon the boy practically fell on the man jolting him from his painless reprieve. The kit blushed heavily before clumsily running out of the house sputtering more nonsense about damn thieves._

"_Sorry he woke you," she apologized with a bow of her head kneeling beside him before she stood and began heating some water on the fire and gathering the required herbs to heal him._

"_Kagome," he winced, talking hurt, everything hurt, but nonetheless he attempted to sit up earning him a smack to the head with the wooden spoon she happened to have nearby. _

_He fell back onto the futon, staining it with his blood, glaring up at her as she walked back to the fire, "Chill Sun Child, I'm going to undress you in a minute so don't even think about moving until then or so help me I'll beat you up more instead of help you!" she said checking the water smirking at her girly nickname for him._

"_Well, if you wanted me that bad you could have just asked," he responded quietly, taking shallow breaths so that he didn't stretch the wounds on his chest worse. "You didn't have to wait until I was injured."_

"Hentai_," she hissed in response. "What are you doing here anyway? Don't you have a pack or at least a den that you would prefer to be at?"_

"_You really are a basket case," he chuckled lightly using the nickname he had given her, but wincing when it pulled. "I'm a thief, I don't have a home and if my pack saw me like this, well, I'd be just as dead as if you had left me there on the road."_

"_Hm, sounds like you need to find a better pack to run with then," she said finally finding the herb she was looking for and pulling it from the top of the cabinet, "and you didn't answer my question. What are you doing here?"_

"_I don't know," he whispered as she knelt to him._

_He caught her eyes in his own. Gold meeting blue. Time stopped. For the briefest moment it was just the two of them. She leaned forward slowly, but quickly realized what she was doing only to stop and begin to remove his tattered tunic with a heavy blush on her cheeks. He didn't miss the blush and couldn't help but smile. Oh, yes, he had definitely fallen for her hard and already he was thinking of ways to make her blush again._

_~*~_

"She healed him that day, but after that he began to see her publicly," he finished happily. "It was said that the two became inseparable and the people of her village began to whisper about how she had tamed yet another wild beast."

The girl laughed bitterly and shook her head with a sardonic smile, "She didn't tame him, you can never tame another living being, not truly, love doesn't work like that."

He looked at her softly, his green eyes studying her knowingly, "Oh, I forgot I never introduced myself. I am Minamino Shuichi."

"Higurashi Kagome," she responded blinking away her tears again as she looked down to the ground and her sweeping. "So what happened after that? Did they find their happily ever after?"

"Well," he said mischievously, "that is a tale for another time. Perhaps I could tell you over dinner?"

She froze and stood still for a moment and he waited with baited breath as she finally looked up at him her hand moving to her abdomen fearfully. His eyes looked at her questionably but his expression remained that of a hopeful young man.

"I-I-I couldn't possibly," she stammered, her stoic facade fading for once her face flustering. "I mean I can't, I-I-you wouldn't want to go out with me!"

"Why not?" he asked stepping closer to her. "You look like you could use a night out, perhaps not as a date per say, but maybe just as friends. You seem to be turning into quite the basket case."

She gasped looked up at him in wonder but his face betrayed nothing as he pushed a stray strand of hair from her face, looking her over her affectionately. Dropping the broom she stepped away from him and shook her head biting her lower lip. Those eyes that looked at her with the same warm affection _he_ looked at her with. In fact were it not for their color difference then she would have sworn it was _him_ standing before her instead of the nicely dressed college boy.

"What did you call me?" she whispered so softly that a normal human could never hear.

"Hm?" he questioned confused. "A basket case? Isn't that your name sake? Like the priestess in the tale?"

Mentally she berated herself as she turned away from him with a blush spreading on her face. Of course he was talking about the tale. How else could a boy like him know her? Know that was _his_ name for her. Like the tale he had told her today. It was their little joke. It began when she teased him about his girl name and even though he explained that the kanji was different so that his name actually mean fox monster, she had called him her sun child, as a sort of jab at him for only appearing to her at night. In turn he had begun to call her a basket case. She certainly liked it better than being called wench all the time though her mother had had a laughing fit when she told her how much she appreciated the name.

"Seriously," she said finally, "you wouldn't want to get yourself attached to someone like me. You'll get more than you bargained for."

"I'm always up for a challenge," he replied confidently as he moved around her so that he was standing in front of her. "Besides I would just like to spend some time with you, it's not like I'm asking you to marry me."

She laughed looking up at him, "Okay, but it's not going to be a date, we're just friends, right?" she asked seriously though in her mind she was questioning her sanity.

"Correct, and since we're just friends would you mind having dinner with me at my apartment?" he asked boldly.

"That's asking a bit much, don't you think?" she asked flatly with a raise of her eyebrow.

"Perhaps, but I honestly would prefer some place quiet and not nearly so crowded as a restaurant, though I do know this amazing ramen shop near by if you would like?" he asked with a smirk.

"No, no, I've had enough ninja food to last me a while, I think," she replied quickly, raising her hands in defeat. "Your place it is."

"Good then I'll pick you up tomorrow at five," he said affirmatively.

"Tomorrow? So soon?"

"Is that a problem?"

"Uh, no, I mean," she fumbled again. "I just I have a doctors appointment and I'm not sure how I'll feel afterward so I uh..."

"Is something the matter?" he asked seriously.

It took her a moment as she mentally paced back and forth in her mind, "No, never mind, five would be great."

As he walked away into the setting sun after a awkward exchange of goodbyes she watched him disappear into the burning sunset. Smiling to herself softly as her eyes filled with tears she could swear she saw a pair of pointed ears appear on his head and a tail move by his feet, but with a shake of her head she dismissed the thought and moved into the house towards the dreaded smell of food.

Author's Notes:

Haha, you can slap me and call me silly but I actually posted this chapter with a piece of the end missing. My new puppy had chewed my power cord to my computer causing it to shut down with the finished chapter still opened and apparently unsaved. Praise God for Open Office which backed up most of the document except for the last paragraph. I checked it but didn't check it far enough down. Sorry!

So, my excuses aside, just if you're wondering about the strange nicknames Kagome and Youko have for one another it comes from their name meanings in Japan. Kagome's name translates as "woven bamboo basket" which is why Youko and Kurama call her a basket case, however in the case of Youko's name the only translation of it I could find were female names meaning litterally sun child, which as we all know, isn't a very Youko kind of name. That being said I dug a little deeper and found that the kanji of his name is actually written to mean fox monster or something like that, but I still thought it was cute that his name is a girl name... haha. Bad humor. Meh.


	3. Reality is Real Really?

"Sweetheart you know you have to take better care of yourself, after all you know you're caring for two now," her mother chided her as they drove home from the hospital. "Your doctor was worried about you being underweight, it's not healthy."

"I know mama," she responded dully. "I'll eat more often, promise, but you know I won't be able to go to that doctor for very much longer."

"I know, but even still you need to be as prepared as possible," Mrs. Higurashi said seriously. "I don't care if your having a monkey, you still need to care for yourself if nothing else but for the sake of my growing granddaughter or grandson."

"Mama, we'll be all right, okay?" she sighed exasperated. "I've even got a date tonight, so I'm trying okay?"

"A date? Don't you think it's a bit soon for that?"

"Well it's not a _date_ date," she corrected slowly, looking away from her passenger window. "It's just a friendly dinner at his place because we both hate loud noises and large crowds."

"Does he know about-"

"No, I'm telling him tonight, speaking of which, I think that's him," she said sitting up straighter to see a red headed man leaning against a compact car.

Mrs. Higurashi watched with a critical eye as her daughter smiled a small smile. Perhaps this boy, whoever he was, could actually help. Perhaps things could go back to as normal as normal could get for them.

~*~

"_You already know I can't do that!" she protested._

_He growled spinning on his heel to face her in the moonlit clearing they were standing it. The sky was clear and the moon was full giving them ample light to see one another._

"_You can, but you just won't because you're too damn afraid!"_

"_What the hell do you know? You've always been a coward! Stealing things in the night, taking from others, and running from everything that could actually make you happy!" she shouted back._

"_Fuck you! You don't know a thing about me woman!" he growled, his fists clenching at his sides.  
_

"_I know enough," she replied softly. "Don't ask me to do this, Youko, if I do there's a chance that I'll disappear."_

_He scoffed, "Why? Because you think that you're so tied to that jewel? I hate to break it to you, but there have been others-"_

"_That's not it!"she exclaimed loudly. "If it were that simple don't you think I would have rid myself of it by now?!"_

"_Then what the hell is your problem?!"_

_Her breath shuddered in her chest as she let herself fall to her knees. She never thought leaving him would be this hard. She didn't want to lead him on, but she didn't want to let him go either. She knew he was seducing her from the start to try and steal the jewel, but some where along the way she also knew that his plan backfired, or at least she hoped he felt that way. After all he was asking her to destroy the jewel so that he could take her as his mate._

"_Youko, I'm not who you think I am," she said quietly as the tears began to slip down her face._

"_What's that supposed to mean?" he asked stepping towards her._

"_If I wish on the jewel I'll have to return to my real home," she said wrapping her arms around her chest. She felt like she was being ripped in half from her heart._

"_So? Then I'll just go and get you," he laughed kneeling down with her._

_She shook her head, "My home isn't somewhere you can just go and rescue me from. I'm not even from this era. If I wish on the jewel I'll be leaving everything behind, not just you, but Shippo too. I can't take his mother from him again!"_

"_You're being a bigger basket case than usual, Kagome," he replied in disbelief. "You're trying to tell me you're actually from the future?"_

"_Yes, as hard as I know it is to believe," she sniffled. "When I was fifteen, I was pulled through the dry well and the jewel was ripped out of my body. My home is actually five hundred years into the future."_

"_Then if what you say is true, I'll wait for you," he said gravely._

"_What?" she gasped finally looking up at him._

"_Look either way, you're just going to be miserable for the rest of your life if you don't get rid of that thing so, I'll just have to wait for you," he replied obviously._

"_For five hundred years?" she questioned in disbelief. "You would sacrifice your entire life just to be with me?"_

"_I didn't say that exactly, but," he replied rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "I'll do it on one condition, though."_

"_See?" she grinned. "I knew there was a catch."_

"_Be mine tonight."_

_~*~_

"What a fool she was," Kagome as she chopped the carrots for the beef stew they were fixing.

"Why do you say that?" Shuichi asked slicing the beef roast with deft fingers.

She sniffled still feeling the effects of the onions she had just chopped, or at least that's what she hoped he would believe, "There's no way a demon who could live for thousands of years would wait for one human female. He probably just went off and got himself killed, being a thief and all."

"I can see how you would think that," he countered thoughtfully, "but personally I would like to think that he found a way to live to see her again."

"Wow, I didn't peg you for the romantic type," she snorted sliding the carrots off the cutting board and into the boiling pot of water on the stove.

She carefully and almost hesitantly peeked at the meat he was cutting on the other end of the counter and immediately wished she hadn't. The smells of the cooking vegetables and herbs was already enough to make her stomach quiver and almost since coming home permanently she hadn't been able to watch her mother prepare dinner or really help at all. She had thought though that since she was entering her second trimester that things would change and her easily soured stomach would allow her to live again, but as she found this wasn't to be the case.

"Where's your restroom?" she asked in a strained voice gripping the counter to help her concentrate on not spilling everything in her stomach in his impeccably clean kitchen.

"Down the hall first door on the right," he answered quickly stopping to look at her worriedly.

He was about to ask her what was wrong when she rushed out of the kitchen before he could. He debated within himself whether or not to go check on her when she didn't return after a moment, and so finished up everything rather quickly and turned down the burner so that everything would simmer to tender completion. As he was washing his hands she returned a bit embarrassed.

"Sorry about that," she said shyly.

"Is something the matter?" he asked concern etched on his features as he dried his hand on a towel. "Do I need to take you home?"

"Not unless you want to," she replied with a small shrug leaning against the doorway.

"If you're ill then you should be resting where you're comfortable," he replied warmly.

She scoffed and shook her head before looking to the patio doors on the far side of his living room, "I wish sometimes that I were just ill, but I'm not, I'm completely fine or at least that's what the doctors say. In fact they say that I could stand to gain some weight and cut out my normal morning routine, but other than that..." she trailed off with a sigh. "Shuichi, do you know why I told you that you wouldn't want me?"

"No, but somehow I feel it has something to do with your visit to the doctor today," he replied tossing the towel onto the counter and walking up to her. "Am I correct?"

She nodded before walking into the living room to sit in his only overstuffed arm chair closest to the patio window where the sun was pouring into the room creating slashes of shadow across the house. Her beautiful azure eyes watched him expectantly and so he followed her sitting on the end of the beige and chocolate couch. She opened her mouth a few times to speak but found that it was hard to form the words. Self consciously she fidgeted with her baby blue empire waist strapless dress.

"I'm going to be completely honest here and just tell you, I'm pregnant," she said finally and slowly. "I was engaged to be married and we really loved each other but as fate would have it he went on a business trip and didn't come back."

Shuichi looked down at his hands in his lap before he replied, "I'm sorry to hear that, do you mind if I ask what your fiance did?"

"He was really into antiques," she replied thoughtfully,inwardly surprised at how easy it had become to lie, "and traveled many places to collect rare jewels and things."

"I see," he said biting his lip the only real sign that he was fighting laughter. "So," he cleared his throat and shifted awkwardly. "I understand why you're not ready to _date_ date again."

"Yeah," she drawled suspiciously. "Are you okay?"

Regaining control over himself he turned his body back towards her seriously, "So do you identify yourself with the priestess in the story then when you said that the thief went off and got himself killed hunting treasure as your fiance did?"

"What are you some sort of psychologist?" she questioned folding her arms over her chest.

"Humor me, please, Kagome," he commanded with a wave of his hand.

"Sure I guess so," she replied carefully. "You could say that I know exactly how that priestess felt."

"All right then how do you think the thief felt?" he asked calmly. "Do you think you could look at the story from his point of view?"

Still looking at him as though he had grown three heads and a dragon tail she slowly answered him, "I've tried but I don't think I could because in the end he was right."

"Right about what?" he asked, folding his leg over his knee.

"I-er-_she_ didn't know anything real about the thief," she replied hotly, wanting to slap herself for slipping up like that.

"Oh?" he questioned with a nod of his head. "You would believe that though you haven't heard the end of the tale?"

"Shuichi I know how the tale ends," she shot back. "It ends like every other sordid romance, just like Romeo and Juliet, except Juliet can't follow her almost lover into death."

"Why would that be?"

She was beginning to get a little cheesed off at his calm questioning of her fragile sanity, "Because just like, everything else he did, he ran from the things that could actually make him happy and left me to pick up the pieces only this time he forgot something."

"What did he forget?"

"His child!" she shouted standing up suddenly. "He didn't care about what happened to me when he left, I was after all just another treasure to be had and once he was done he went right back to being the careless bastard he was before! I told him to stop! I told him what would happen! And look, I was right, so yeah the girl of the future knows a thing or two about the fucking future!"

He raised his eyebrow at her sudden use of foul words, but otherwise he still sat on his couch calmly which only infuriated her more. How could he sit there so calmly while asking her such personal questions that obviously upset her. Growling she asked her the bigger question, why was she still answering his questions. Turning away from him and his sympathetic emerald gaze she opened the blinds of his sliding door and slid the door open only to be met with the bittersweet scent of roses. The cool spring wind breezed past her ruffling her dress over the tops of her feet and showing for once the small bump of her tummy. Surrounded by his scent she couldn't fight the tears that filled her eyes and her heart.

"Kagome," Shuichi called softly from behind her, though she hadn't heard him move. "Would you like to hear the rest of the tale?"

She didn't respond and so he continued, "The thief listened to her words about the future and he didn't go on any more heists until he heard of a precious treasure that was said to be so well protected that not even he could steal it. He should have known it was a trap but he went anyway. He thought he got away, but a bounty hunter was lying in wait and took him down just a few years before he was to meet with his beloved priestess again."

He paused when he saw her shoulders begin to shake and heard a repressed sob escape her lips, but he pressed on knowing this was something she needed to hear, "He wanted so much to not break his promise to her that he took on the form of a spirit and crossed over to the human world and took a vessel of a woman much like you who had lost her husband and because of the stress was unknowingly loosing her child. He placed his soul inside the dying child and strengthened it so that he could live even if it was as a human until he could be with her again."

She turned to him confusion written clearly on her features and he took the last two steps towards her so that he could wrap his arms around her shaking form as he finished the tale, "Then one day still a few years shy of when she told him she would be back in the future he found her, alone under a cherry tree in his favorite park. He had hoped that she would be able to recognize him even in his human form, but she was so lost in her own depression that he was afraid to just tell her so instead he told her a story, one he knew that only she would know."

"Youko?" she questioned in a whisper, her knees beginning to feel weaker by the moment.

"The thief," he continued looking deep into her eyes, "after all never let a treasure get away from him once he had it. So he told her everything and then he asked her to be his mate once again, this time doing things her way, the human way, he asked her to marry him, in front of all their families and friends."

At that point her knees gave out as her eyes rolled back into her head and he only chuckled not at all surprised she had fainted.

* * *

Authors Notes:

Okay just an FYI, there is a sequel to this story called Forget Me Not is a Rose. I origionally didn't want to continue this story, but after a few positive reviews and the discovery of a new muse in the form of a few key songs, a trilogy was born. The second part is longer and a bit more dramatic as this first part was meant to be really only a romantic fluffy thing that would make you go awww! The third part is still in the planning stages of my mind but hopefully soon I'll be able to begin fleshing that part out since part two is most of the way written. Thank you for reading and feel free to check out part II!


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